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An Assessment to Find Not Your Story, But Your Story Type

While researching questions for an upcoming Q&A, I came across the Professional Values & Story Index (PVSI) on the site of The Storybranding Group, headed by Cindy Atlee, who has committed to a Q&A.

The assessment is based on a model created by Dr. Carol S. Pearson, who specializes in story archetypes. The site describes the index as a “story typing instrument for individuals that illuminates professional assets, values, and gifts through a story-based lens.”

I wasn’t surprised at my results; I’m a Creator. In every assessment I’ve ever taken — and I’ve taken many — the consistent themes are creativity, introversion, and intuition.

The other types are Caregiver, Ruler, Hero, Revolutionary, Magician, Jester, Everyperson, Lover, Innocent, Explorer, and Sage. Under each type are several sub-types; for example, under Creator are Innovator, Inventor, Artisan, Builder, and Dreamer.

Perhaps most valuable, pun intended, is seeing the values that go with one’s type, in my case, imagination, expression, invention, innovation, and authenticity.

I wasn’t in love with the interface of the assessment. As you can see in the image above, the assessment uses a standard Likert scale, but one with 10 choices. Having to determine where I fit on a scale of 1-10 for all the items in the assessment made my brain hurt. I would have preferred a scale of 1-5. Users should also note that results are not saved. I went back, thinking I might have missed something in the results, but was not able to access them.

Something I really like about The Storybranding Group’s offering of the PVSI is that it’s free. Says the site: “we decided to make this instrument available at no charge because it’s such an important part of our mission to make the world a better place through authentic expression. The only ‘consideration’ involved is that by taking the instrument, you’re agreeing to join our mailing list (which will never be sold to or shared with anyone else).”